So, stage 1 is not a stage. It was supposed to be a 45 lap criterium in St. Paul. But, the weather wasn’t great and the roads were wet. OH NO! We shouldn’t have to race with wet pavement on a short loop the field said. We raced about 30 minutes before an official on a motorcycle was doing some stupid stuff and ran into a rider. I was in the remains of the front group. Something like 20+ riders. Heathnet had virtually their whole team there. Kelley Benefits had a bunch of guys too. Stevic was the only Toyota guy. I never even got winded. Jonathan Page fell and nearly took me out, but that was only the close call for me. If the officials really were going to enforce the “complete half the race or miss the time cut” rule, there were not going to be many guys left. But, the motorcycle fell, they neutralized the race and that was it. Everyone bitched until they canceled it. No rain, no lightening. Just wet road.

I didn’t really feel like riding a wet criterium. I’ve fallen enough this season. But that is part of the sport. Especially during a stage race. I don’t understand why the officials would call a race just because some/most the riders didn’t want to keep going. There were a lot of man hole covers and lots of guys were falling down. But, that shouldn’t make any difference either. The main problem nowdays with races like this is that the officials have no ability to do their jobs when it gets just a little sketchy. They shouldn’t have allowed so many automobiles and motorcycles on the course. Plus, they didn’t have any way to score the event. Shows how small our sport is when the officials continually can’t score a rainy criterium. Whatever. Guess the race starts tomorrow. 70 mile road race at 5 pm.